Bay Area brewery day trip: A trio of Alameda beer stops — and an exciting newcomer

My Bay Area brewery tour this month took me to the island of Alameda, where breweries and distilleries dot the expanse of the former Alameda Naval Air Station. I hadn’t there since before the pandemic, but since Faction Brewing was the only Bay Area brewery to win two medals at this year’s prestigious World Beer Cup, I figured it was high time I stopped by for a visit. I visited a trio of taprooms on this trip and discovered there’s an exciting newcomer headed this way.

Faction Brewing

Founded by industry veterans Rodger Davis and Claudia Pamparana in 2013 in an old, 65,000-square-foot airplane hangar, the couple brought years of experience to Faction. Davis brewed at the old San Francisco Brewing and later at Pyramid, Drake’s and Triple Rock, while Pamparana managed the bar at the 21st Amendment brewpub.

Faction’s outdoor beer space boasts amazing views of San Francisco, with room for 500 revelers indoors and out. Faction keeps more than 20 beers on tap in a wide variety of styles.
Davis is known for his hop-forward beer including their original flagship beer Faction Pale Ale, brewed with Mosaic, Apollo and Columbus hop varieties, although it gets plenty of competition from Faction’s seasonal IPAs, including the current Buffer Zone IPA, to tide us over until summer.

Faction makes some great lagers too, including a 1970s Lager, a pre-prohibition lager made with corn; Faction Pils, a traditional German-style pilsner; Rice Lager, which is brewed with jasmine rice; and Black Hoodie Lager, a schwarzbier. Don’t miss the Saison de Alameda, made with a wild yeast found on the island. Both owners are huge Seinfeld fans, so keep your eyes open for sly references to the classic sitcom, such as The Penske File, a West Coast pale ale that will keep you looking busy.

Details: Faction is open Wednesday-Sunday at 2501 Monarch St. in Alameda, with food trucks on-site daily; factionbrewing.com

Almanac Beer Co.

Almanac began in 2011 as a contract brewery, but in 2018, Damian Fagan and Jesse Friedman opened their own brewery on the island. Fagan, who is the sole owner now, is not only a homebrewer but a designer working in the alcohol industry on branding and label design — 90 percent of Almanac’s labels carry his designs.

The brewery is spacious, with ample room for wooden barrels and foeders, which make up a large part of their sour beer program. Grab a seat in the big outdoor beer garden or at one of the picnic tables inside.

Brewery production manager João Alameida, who used to brew at Anchor, makes a wide range of beer styles, with at least 20 beers on tap at any given time and another half-dozen that are oak-aged true sours. I quite enjoyed Pillow Talk, a foeder-aged Czech lager; Big Love, an imperial hazy IPA and the wonderfully named The Slow Heat Death of the Universe Hazy IPA. Hoppier still was the West Coast triple IPA, Full Send.

On the sour side, Fruit Punch Sour Nose, brewed with nectarines, peaches and hibiscus was a delightfully tropical beer, and Move Me Brettly was a solid Brettanomyces sour.

Details: Almanac is open daily at 651B Tower Ave. with various food partner trucks rolling through each day; almanacbeer.com.

The Rake at Admiral Maltings

Admiral Maltings may not be a brewery, but it’s so brewery adjacent, I can’t not include it here. Founded by brewers Dave McLean (Magnolia) and Ron Silberstein (Thirsty Bear Brewing) along with maltster Curtis Davenport, this is a small craft malting facility that takes California-grown barley and turns it into malt for local craft breweries.

After getting the malting business going in 2017, they opened The Rake onsite, making it the only maltster in the world to have its own pub, which serves more than 20 beers made with Admiral malt, plus several whiskies and bourbon that use their malt too. The food menu includes smoked meats, such as tri-tip, pulled pork and ribs, plus sandwiches, salads and more. And many of those booth seats offer views of the floor malting process going on in the back.